I read this when Nat told me that Maddy had read it and I’d already heard about and was interested in it. It’s good. I felt slightly uneasy all the way through the book, even after the ‘surprise’ on p77. I definitely related to the narrator feeling like she was a bit weird that that no one liked her when she was growing up. I enjoyed the humour which contrasted with the sad family situation. This book is different and refreshing.

I read this for book group. Even though I had to look up the meanings of lots of words it’s a fairly easy read. I thought it was good that the two main female characters were written in such a human way; they got irritated, angry, annoyed etc.

What I didn’t like was the way it kept you in suspense over what was going on for more than 89 pages. Also on p56 Lucas tells Eva ‘Never trust anyone’ and I knew then that Lucas was going to betray her, so the book was spoilt for me. Although Eva’s story had a lot more action in it than her daughter Ruth’s I found boring in places and skim read some of it, especially the descriptions of places. Life After Life and The Night Watch invoke that wartime period far better.

In Ruth’s story there are lots of people introduced and storylines that didn’t seem to have any relevance in the end. Actually Ruth (Eva/Sally’s daughter) seemed to have no significance apart from as a vehicle to tell her mother’s story. Her husband’s brother’s appearance had no reason whatsoever. Or Hamid. Or Robert York. None of these people added anything to Ruth’s story. It was supposed to be set in the 70’s but there wasn’t anything there that evoked that period for me.

Overall, I wouldn’t recommend this book.